Category: olympic sports

olympic sports, work portfolio

Olympic sports writing: 2004-2015

Posted on by Beau Dure

Selected features and interviews, plus coverage from several Olympics:

Features

Sochi 2014

London 2012 (all Bleacher Report unless noted)

Vancouver 2010: Nordic sports and biathlon (all USA TODAY)

Beijing 2008: Everything, especially soccer (all USA TODAY)

Torino 2006 (USA TODAY)

Athlete interviews (all USA TODAY)

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olympic sports, winter sports

Handicapping the men’s world curling championship

Posted on by Beau Dure

There might be some geoblocking on the YouTube feed. Let’s hope not. This is going to be fun.

A look at each team, in order of year-to-date Order of Merit:

CANADA: Kevin Koe is the skip after winning a masterful performance at the Brier, his team’s sixth win in 11 events this year. He won the world title in 2010 and was fourth in 2014, but he has a totally new crew now.

Order of Merit, total: 4th
Order of Merit, year-to-date: 1st
Best finish in 2015-16: 1st. Often.

SWEDEN: Niklas Edin isn’t just the top non-Canadian curler in the world. He’s the defending world champion. He won his first world title in 2013, took bronze in Sochi, replaced his entire team, and won Worlds again in 2015. This is a well-funded crew, playing 16 events all over the world this season, usually in the top five.

Order of Merit, total: 6th
Order of Merit, year-to-date: 8th
Best finish in 2015-16: 1st, European Championships and Baden Masters (and 1st in Sweden)

USA: John Shuster is still in his early 30s. He just seems like he’s been around forever. He was the lead on the most successful U.S. men’s team in recent years, Pete Fenson’s 2006 bronze medalists. He has been back to the Olympics twice as a skip, finishing a disappointing 10th and 9th. He’s been a bit better at Worlds, finishing fifth in two previous trips as skip. This season? Runner-up in the U.S. Championships, but first in three other events.

Order of Merit, total: 14th
Order of Merit, year-to-date: 14th
Best finish in 2015-16: 1st, three times. 

SCOTLAND: Tom Brewster represents the sport’s ancestral home and has done so many times on the world stage. He has medals — Olympic silver as an alternate, two World Championship silvers as a skip — but no gold yet. They’ve been busy this year, playing 13 events and finishing in the top 5 in 10 of them.

Order of Merit, total: 18th
Order of Merit, year-to-date: 15th
Best finish in 2015-16: 2nd, Baden Masters and Aberdeen International (and 1st in Scotland)

SWITZERLAND: Sven Michel has skipped once at Worlds (7th, 2013) and the Olympics (8th, 2014). His only win this season was the Swiss Championship, but they’ve been close several times, traveling almost as much as the Swedes.

Order of Merit, total: 16th
Order of Merit, year-to-date: 16th
Best finish in 2015-16: 2nd, Dave Jones Stanhope Simpson Mayflower Cashspiel (and 1st in Switzerland)

NORWAY: Thomas Ulsrud and his very loud pants is making his 12th appearance at Worlds, and he has been playing with the same group for nearly a decade. They took silver in the 2010 Olympics and then a gold and silver in the last two World Championships. No wins this season, but they’re usually in the playoffs. A team to watch, as if you could miss those pants.

Order of Merit, total: 10th
Order of Merit, year-to-date: 17th
Best finish in 2015-16: 2nd, Mercure Perth Masters (and, oddly, 2nd in Norwegian Championships)

SOUTH KOREA: Kim Soo-hyuk has been here twice before as a third, finishing 10th in 2003 and 11th in 2011. This is his first Worlds as a skip. But this is a hot team this season — five top-3s and two fifth-place finishes in eight events.

Order of Merit, total: 30th
Order of Merit, year-to-date: 25th
Best finish in 2015-16: 1st, Pacific-Asia Championships and Avonair Cash Spiel 

JAPAN: Yusuke Morozumi is still looking for a breakthrough in his fifth Worlds (fourth straight) with the same crew. His best is fifth in 2014. Odd stat: He has never won the Pacific-Asia title but has finished second six times, four in a row.

Order of Merit, total: 24th
Order of Merit, year-to-date: 51st
Best finish in 2015-16: 2nd, Pacific-Asia Curling Championships (and 1st in Japan)

FINLAND: Aku Kauste. Sounds like a Death Metal band, doesn’t he? This is his fifth time at Worlds, third as skip. Before that, he played with Markku … OK, let’s copy and paste … Uusipaavalniemi He was fourth with Mr. U in 2003 and again last year.

Order of Merit, total: 28th
Order of Merit, year-to-date: 54th
Best finish in 2015-16: 3rd, Edinburgh International

DENMARK: Rasmus Stjerne is making his fourth appearance as a skip at Worlds at the young-ish age of 27. His best finish is fourth in 2013. This year’s results aren’t great — three top-5s in seven events.

Order of Merit, total: 67th
Order of Merit, year-to-date: 67th
Best finish in 2015-16: 2nd, Stroud Sleeman Cash Spiel

GERMANY: Alexander Baumann is making his first appearance at Worlds. With two top-5s in nine events (not counting the German Championships), they’re not on anyone’s radar.

Order of Merit, total: 81st
Order of Merit, year-to-date: 80th
Best finish in 2015-16: 5th, German Masters and Karuizawa International (and 1st, German Championships)

RUSSIA: Alexey Stukalskiy throws the last stones, but Andrey Drozdov is the skip. Drozdov, still just 28, made it to Worlds in 2013 and skipped on home ice at the 2014 Olympics. Still an emerging curling nation, they’ve been a non-factor in most events this season.

Order of Merit, total: 88th
Order of Merit, year-to-date: 87th
Best finish in 2015-16: 3rd, Thompson Curling Challenge

NOTABLE HEAD-TO-HEAD EVENTS

Baden Masters, Aug. 28-30: Edin (Sweden) 1st, Brewster (Scotland) 2nd, Michel (Swiss) 3rd, Ulsrud (Norway) 3rd, Drozdov (Russia) 9th, Baumann (Germany) 13th

GSOC Tour Challenge Tier 1, Sept. 8-13: Koe (Canada) 1st, Shuster (USA) 3rd, Edin (Sweden) 9th

Point Optical Classic, Sept. 25-28: Shuster (USA) 5th, Edin (Sweden) 5th, Michel (Swiss) 11th, Kim (South Korea) 15th, Morozumi (Japan) 15th

Swiss Cup Basel, Oct. 2-4: Michel (Swiss) 5th, Stjerne (Denmark) 5th, Ulsrud (Norway) 9th, Drozdov (Russia) 11th, Baumann (Germany) 17th, Kauste (Finland) 17th, Brewster (Scotland) 23rd

Canad Inns Men’s Classic, Oct. 16-19: Koe (Canada) 2nd, Morozumi (Japan) 5th, Edin (Sweden) 9th, Shuster (USA) 12th

Curling Masters Champery, Oct. 22-25: Brewster (Scotland) 5th, Baumann (Germany) 10th, Kauste (Finland) 10th, Drozdov (Russia) 12th

Masters of Curling, Oct. 27-Nov. 1: Koe (Canada) 3rd, Edin (Sweden) 5th, Ulsrud (Norway) 10th

The National, Nov. 10-15: Koe (Canada) 5th, Ulsrud (Norway) 5th, Edin (Sweden) 9th, Michel (Swiss) 10th

EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS, Nov. 19-28: Edin (Sweden) 1st, Ulsrud (Norway) 3rd, Kauste (Finland) 4th, Stjerne (Denmark) 5th, Drozdov (Russia) 9th

Meridian Canadian Open, Dec. 8-13: Koe (Canada) 3rd, Edin (Sweden) 5th, Shuster (USA) 12th

Karuizawa International, Dec. 17-20: Edin (Sweden) 3rd, Kim (South Korea) 3rd, Baumann (Germany) 5th, Morozumi (Japan) 5th

Perth (Scotland) Masters, Jan. 7-10: Koe (Canada) 1st, Ulsrud (Norway) 2nd, Michel (Switzerland) 3rd, Brewster (Scotland) 5th, Drozdov (Russia) 5th, Edin (Sweden) 9th, Kauste (Finland) 17th, Stjerne (Denmark) 17th, Baumann (Germany) 23rd

German Masters, Jan. 21-24: Kim (Korea) 2nd, Michel (Swiss) 3rd, Edin (Sweden) 3rd, Kauste (Finland) 5th, Baumann (Germany) 5th, Stjerne (Denmark) 9th, Brewster (Scotland) 14th, Drozdov (Russia) 14th

Aberdeen International, March 25-27: Brewster (Scotland) 2nd, Ulsrud (Norway) 3rd, Kauste (Finland) 5th, Shuster (USA) 5th, Drozdov (Russia) 10th, Baumann (Germany) 10th

PREDICTIONS

  1. Canada
  2. Sweden
  3. Scotland
  4. Switzerland
  5. Norway
  6. USA
  7. Finland
  8. South Korea
  9. Japan
  10. Russia
  11. Germany
  12. Denmark
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olympic sports

Important Olympic qualifying dates

Posted on by Beau Dure

Yes, I’m still planning to do Olympic projections this year. I’m switching to a different system, though, and the projections won’t be up until early summer.

In preparing for that, I compiled a massive list of dates that will determine which Americans go to Rio to compete. That means I had to read every available “selection criteria” document, which is an easy way to get a headache.

I don’t expect this post to go viral, but I figured it was worth sharing for Oly-philes. Enjoy.

Feb. 7-14: Sailing, 49er/49erFX/Nacra World Championships (U.S. qual)

Feb. 13: Track and field, USA marathon trial (U.S. qual)

Feb. 19-24: Diving, World Cup (quota)

Feb. 21: Track and field, 50k race walk (U.S. qual)

Feb. 26-March 5: Sailing, Laser Radial Europeans (U.S. qual)

March 2-6: Cycling (track), World Champs, then final ranking list (quota/direct qual)

March 2-6: Synchronized swimming, qualification tournament (quota/direct qual)

March 4-6: Wrestling, Pan Am qualifier (quota)

March 5-12: Sailing, Finn Europeans (U.S. qual)

March 8-20: Boxing, Americas qualifier (quota/direct qual)

March 10-11: Taekwondo, Pan Am qualifier (quota/direct qual)

March 21-28: Water polo, women’s qualification tournament (quota)

March 26-April 2: Sailing, Laser/RS:X event (U.S. qual)

April 1-8: Shooting, rifle/pistol trials (U.S. qual)

April 4: Fencing, ranking cutoff date (quota/direct qual)

April 5-12: Sailing, 470 Europeans (U.S. qual)

April 8-9: Canoe/kayak (slalom), trials 1 (U.S. qual part 1)

April 8-10: Table tennis, North American qualifier (quota/direct qual)

April 9-10: Wrestling, U.S. trials (U.S. qual)

April 12: Fencing, U.S. ranking cutoff (U.S. qual)

April 15-17: Fencing, zonal last-chance qualifier (quota/direct qual)

April 16-24: Gymnastics (trampoline), Olympic Test Event (quota)

April 17-24: Rowing, U.S. small boat trials (U.S. qual)

April 22-24: Wrestling, world qualification tournament (quota/direct qual)

April 29: Modern pentathlon, World Cup Final in Sarasota (misc interest/points)

April 29-30: Canoe/kayak (sprint), trials (U.S. qual)

May 5: Badminton, final ranking list (quota/direct qual)

May 6-8: Wrestling, world qualification tournament (quota/direct qual)

May 7-8: Canoe/kayak (slalom), trials 2 (U.S. qual final – points system)

May 13-22: Boxing, APB/WSB qualifier (quota/direct qual)

May 15: Table tennis, ranking cutoff (quota)

May 15: Triathlon, ranking cutoff (quota/direct qual)

May 16-25: Shooting, shotgun trials (U.S. qual)

May 17-23: Modern pentathlon, World Championships (quota/direct qual)

May 19-20: Canoe/kayak (sprint), Pan Am qualifier (quota/direct qual?)

May 19-27: Boxing, women’s qualifier (quota/direct qual)

May 22-25: Rowing, qualification regatta (quota)

May 27-29: Rowing, World Cup (U.S. qual)

May 25: Cycling (mountain bike), final ranking list (quota)

May 25-29, Cycling (BMX), World Championships (quota/direct qual)

May 26: Cycling (road), women’s Pan Am qualifier (quota)

May 30: Judo, ranking cutoff date (quota/direct qual)

May 31: Cycling (road), women’s ranking cutoff date (quota/U.S. qual)

May 31: Cycling (BMX), ranking cutoff date (quota)

June 1: Cycling (BMX), U.S. ranking cutoff date (U.S. qual)

June 1: Modern pentathlon, ranking cutoff date (quota/direct qual with asterisks)

June 4-11: Weightlifting, Pan Am qualifier (quota)

June 6: Tennis, ranking cutoff date (quota/direct qual)

June 8-13: Gymnastics (rhythmic/trampoline), U.S. trials if needed (U.S. qual)

June 11: Cycling (BMX), last-chance men’s qualifier (U.S. qual)

June 13: Volleyball (beach), ranking cutoff (quota/direct qual)

June 13-18: Archery, World Cup (women’s quota)

June 18-26: Diving, U.S. trials (U.S. qual)

June 19-22: Rowing, final trials (U.S. qual)

June 20: Cycling (road), men’s ranking cutoff date (quota/U.S. qual)

June 20: Weightlifting, ranking cutoff (quota/U.S. qual)

June 20-26: Volleyball (beach), last-chance qualifier (quota/direct qual)

June 23-26: Gymnastics (artistic), U.S. men’s trials (U.S. qual)

June 26-July 3: Swimming, U.S. trials (U.S. qual)

June 27: Field hockey, U.S. women’s team named (U.S. qual)

July 1-5: Equestrian, team named (U.S. qual)

July 1-10: Track and field, U.S. trials (U.S. qual)

July 8-10: Gymnastics (artistic), U.S. women’s trials (U.S. qual)

July 11: Golf, ranking cutoff date (quota/direct qual)

July 17: Rugby, U.S. teams named (U.S. qual)

July 17: Volleyball, U.S. teams named (U.S. qual)

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mma, olympic sports, soccer, sports culture

Back in the podcasting game

Posted on by Beau Dure

The new SportsMyriad podcast features me ranting about the U.S. women’s soccer roster, curling, Rio 2016 prep, youth soccer getting too serious, and of course, the bizarre lawsuit filed against Ronda Rousey by a guy who apparently lives at White Castle.

[spreaker type=standard width=100% autoplay=false episode_id=7519994]

Please let me know what you think. Yes, it goes too long — future podcasts will either be shorter or will have an interview segment.

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medal projections, olympic sports

What happens when you search for Olympic sports

Posted on by Beau Dure

Yes, SportsMyriad will have medal projections in 2016, but we’re doing things a little differently. Note the “we.” Not “I.” I’m getting help.

As preparation for the projections, I did a few searches on every Summer Olympic sport today. It’s difficult. So many summer sports are also recreational, and it’s hard to find coverage of the ISATWHATEVER World Cup amid all the stuff geared toward the practitioner, not the fan. Other sports are far more popular outside the Olympics.

Here’s what you find for each sport:

Archery: “I killed a bear. Check out these photos.”

Badminton: China, China, China, hey, can we make England as good as China?

Basketball: 405 tips for your fantasy team.

Beach volleyball: Duhhhh … they don’t wear much. (FWIW, I will never understand the fascination with skimpy beach volleyball apparel. It’s not as if track and field athletes are wearing parkas and golf pants.)

Boxing: We hate Floyd Mayweather.

Canoe/kayak: 405 tips for whitewater.

Cycling, BMX: Buy our gnarly BMX gear.

Cycling, mountain bike: Buy our gnarly mountain bike gear.

Cycling, road: Buy this $7,278 piece of equipment that will make you go slightly faster.

Cycling, track: … you wanna do what? ….

Diving: My latest vacation photos from the Great Barrier Reef.

Equestrian: 405 tales from veterinary research.

Fencing: Take the stuff you get at Home Depot and build this!

Golf: (A) 405 tips for your short game or (B) will Tiger Woods ever regain his form?

Gymnastics, artistic: My 405-part series on the scoring system and how it affects the way we teach 5-year-olds.

Gymnastics, rhythmic: “noun, a form of gymnastics emphasizing dancelike rhythmic routines …”

Gymnastics, trampoline: Please take our trampoline. Free to anyone who can take it.

Handball: “Oh, you mean team handball? No one who writes about it actually calls it by that name.”

Hockey: “Oh, you mean field hockey? No one who writes about it actually calls it by that name.”

Judo: 405 tips for improving … oh, wait, Ronda Rousey’s mom just tweeted …

Modern pentathlon: 404 not found

Rowing: Anything with the word “row” (Front Row, Back Row) or even “Rowe.”

Rugby: 405 reasons England will never be as good as Australia or New Zealand.

Sailing: 405 tips for sailing the Chesapeake.

Shooting: “From my cold, dead hands …”

Soccer: Will Mourinho replace Van Gaal? And why didn’t Carli Lloyd win goal of the year?

Swimming: 405 tips for improving your lap time

Synchronized swimming: … um … what?

Table tennis: Wanna buy our table?

Taekwondo: Your dojo is a joke, dude.

Tennis: (A) 405 tips for improving your backhand or (B) how ridiculously awesome is Serena?

Track and field: We really love this sport in Oregon.

Triathlon: 405 tips for improving your transition from swim to bike.

Volleyball: “VolleyBall Girl Asses.” I wish I was kidding.

Water polo: “Water-Polo Hunks.” Turnabout is fair play?

Weightlifting: 405 ways to pick things up and put them down.

Wrestling: “JOHN CENA! WHOOOOOO!!!”

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olympic sports, track and field

Why the USA fell flat in track and field World Championships

Posted on by Beau Dure

The knee-jerk reaction is to find one small group of overlords to blame. But when knowledgeable folks like those at Daily Relay chime in, you get a different reaction:

So what will be the response to the lowest medal total since 2003? Not much probably. Outside of the relays, there is no centralized control in American track and field. The majority of the athletes have their own coach and training system, independent of the national team. As a result, the governing body gets too much credit when the medal total is high and too much blame when it is low. There won’t be any massive changes because of this performance because there really are no changes to make.

I feel like I have to offer a disclaimer when I respond to unfair criticism of USA Track and Field because one of their execs is a friend of mine. Then again, she’s a friend of mine because we worked together, and I found her to be a good, honest co-worker who’s smart as hell.

I had been thinking of doing a full examination of what went wrong for the USA in Beijing, but Daily Relay did it better than I could. I bow to their expertise …

Source: Monday Morning Run: A World Championships in 15 nouns | Daily Relay

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olympic sports

Please don’t come to Boston; or, don’t give up on the Games

Posted on by Beau Dure

Contrary to popular belief, a city or country can be a financially responsible host for a major sports event.

While we fret about the cost of the Olympics, Toronto just hosted the Pan American Games, which has more sports and more events than the Summer Olympics, and early reports suggest the city is still standing. Maybe even ready to bid for the Olympics.

Yes, we know. The Sochi Olympics were a giant boondoggle, though not the $50 billion sinkhole that’s commonly reported. We know Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium (a twisted photo of which is in the SportsMyriad header) has no regular tenant, though it’s a fun place to visit and will soon host the track and field World Championships.

The Olympics can be badly planned. That’s the consensus on the 2004 Games in Athens, though some argue otherwise.

They can also be planned well, and venues can become thriving spots for, say, London tourists.

oly-entry

After the 2022 bidding debacle, in which the IOC’s overbearing insistence on regal treatment drove away every place that has viable snow and a world-class sliding track, everyone’s back in for 2024. Back to Paris? Rome?

It won’t be Boston, for which the blame game is in full swing. Christine Brennan says heads should roll at the USOC. Alan Abrahamson contrasts the lack of political will in Boston with the strong support in …

Los Angeles! They did it before, albeit in a different era and without the Soviet bloc.

Want a good litmus test for hosting? Here’s one from Toronto Star columnist Bruce Arthur: “An Olympics is only worth it if it leaves your city better off than it found it, for a reasonable enough price.”

And it occurs to me that Los Angeles needs another soccer stadium, anyway …

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olympic sports

Around the world

Posted on by Beau Dure

Olympic sports don’t get the coverage they deserve, especially in the USA. Even at the Olympics themselves, too many good stories go unreported. I’ve expended a lot of effort trying to rectify the situation, within the context of a major news organization and outside of one, but one person can only do so much.

At SportsMyriad, I’ve done medal projections for the 2012 and 2014 Olympics, and I rounded up some volunteers to do event-by-event coverage of the Sochi Olympics.

IMG_3558 I’ve also found good feature stories. In 2008, I wondered how a tiny country like Iceland could be making such a big run in handball. I went out to explore and found a lively bunch of players with unusual quotes. I went back out to see then again in the semifinals and wound up meeting the president and first lady of Iceland. (Sadly, I was unable to cover the final, which they lost.)

I didn’t travel to the 2012 or 2014 Olympics, and 2016 looks unlikely. But I’d like to get back to it one of these years and do another whirlwind tour, finding and reporting good stories everywhere.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to do projections, and I’ll keep an eye out for good stories.

medal projections, olympic sports

2016 medal projections: Handball (men’s)

Posted on by Beau Dure

The World Championships are all over bar the shouting. And people are shouting about Qatar — the country you know as the dubiously selected FIFA World Cup host in 2022 but now known as the country that bought a bunch of ringers for its handball team, bought a bunch of fans for this tournament and got so many questionable calls in its favor that one beaten opponent sarcastically applauded the refs.

That was after the powers that be realized Germany wasn’t in the tournament, so Oceania champion Australia was unceremoniously dumped so the handball-watching country could get a wild card.

Like South Korea’s soccer team after the 2002 World Cup, we need to ask whether Qatar will be able to duplicate this performance away from home. You have to figure refs in Rio won’t be quite as amenable to Qatar’s whims as they were in Qatar.

That said, I’m already second-guessing myself for omitting Brazil, the only team to place in the top 16 in the last two World Championships that isn’t listed here. They were 13th in 2013, 16th this year. So they’ll have fewer performance points than anyone else on the list, but if I gave them a five-point adjustment (as I did for Poland, based on more or less a gut feeling not related to them sarcastically applauding the refs), they would move ahead of Egypt.

But they’re a long shot in any case. France has won the last two Olympics and three of the last four world championships, the last by silencing Qatar in a tense final. They’re the obvious favorites.

Denmark has been a consistent European medalist and took silver in the 2011 and 2013 Worlds. They took fifth in Qatar, rebounding from quarterfinal disappointment to win their next two games.

The team that beat Denmark is Spain, which also managed to beat Qatar in group play. They lost to France in the semifinals and dropped the third-place game to Poland.

Croatia and Germany, both perennial powers, won their groups but lost in the quarterfinals. Germany, though, has had some qualification issues in recent tournaments.

And qualifying isn’t easy. Only 12 teams make it, including host Brazil, one team from the Americas, one team from Asia, and one team from Africa. That leaves a maximum of eight teams from Europe, and any team that makes it from there has a shot at a medal.

So we’ll need to revisit this after qualification. At least one team with more than a 30 percent chance of qualifying will miss out.

Until then, here’s the chart of contenders, with projected medalists: France, Denmark, Spain.

[gview file=”http://www.sportsmyriad.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Handball-men.pdf”%5D

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